Britain has incurred billions of pounds in extra costs for no clear benefit by using the private finance initiative (PFI) to build much of its infrastructure, the National Audit Office has said.
Recent PFI contracts “for schools, hospitals and other facilities” are between 2 and 4% more expensive than other government borrowing, and involve significant additional fees, the watchdog said in a report published on Thursday.
The GMB union said the NAO’s report showed that PFI was a “catastrophic waste of taxpayers’ money” and projects were “financial time bombs”
The Telegraph adds that there is little evidence that handing public contracts to private organisations offers value for money for taxpayers.
The Independent reports that taxpayers are being faced with a bill totalling £199bn to private contractors for schemes under the controversial Private Finance Initative (PFI), even if no further deals are struck, according to the spending watchdog’s report.
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